Keep it Good + Simple with the Hemsleys

Perhaps you have The Art of Eating Well on your bookshelf at home? Maybe you’ve pored over a friend’s dog-eared copy, or tried a Hemsley recipe cooked up by a colleague (the Black Bean Chocolate Brownies became an office regular when one of our team got her hands on the book). If so, you’d be in good and plentiful company – the Hemsleys’ first game-changing foodie foray has been on the bestseller list since its publication two years ago.

And with ample reason – at a time when everything we ate from meat to fruit was being demonised, the Hemsleys guided us back to good sense, real food and economical nourishment – a smart take on the ‘meat and two veg’ formula that many Brits have grown up with. We were smitten.

The second book Good + Simple (Ebury Press, £25), sticks to the same flavour-comes-first formula – this is stuff that is a joy to eat and feels, almost incidentally, to be doing your body a lot of good at the same time. They also know their onions – there’s cooking, prep and holistic health advice galore – alongside a rainbow of recipes that can be made ahead of time, speedily, and easily transported if you’re on the go (yep, we hear you).

This is not about the things you have to ‘quit’ – it’s about whole foods that support leading full, happy lives. My grandmother used to say that you can’t have an appetite for life if you don’t have a healthy appetite – and the Hemsleys embody this spirit in an inclusive, exciting and guilt-free way. Whether or not you like to #boilyourbones (to make nutritious stock to bolster immunity), or simply want to eat well, Good + Simple is just that – unsensationalised pleasure.

Photograph: Nicholas Hopper